According to the administrative divisions ofChina including Hong Kong and Macau, there are three level of cities, namely provincial-level[1] (consists of municipalities and SARs[2]), prefectural-level cities, and county-level cities. As of October 2015 the PRC has a total of 657 cities: 4 municipalities, 2 SARs, 291 prefectural-level cities (including the 15 sub-provincial cities) and 360 county-level cities (including the 10 sub-prefectural cities and 8 XXPC cities) not including any cities in the claimed province of Taiwan.

The PRC had more than 660 cities by the end of 2002, of which 10 had populations of more than 4 million each in the urban area; 23, between 2 and 4 million; 138, between 1 and 2 million; 279, between 500,000 and 1 million; 171, between 200,000 and 500,000; and 39, fewer than 200,000 people.[3]